A Million Hands

What is 'A Million Hands'?

The name reflects the Scouting movement's ambition to mobilise half a million Scouts by the end of 2018 in support of four social issues chosen by our young people.

From dementia to those disabled in society, improving the mental wellbeing and resilience of our communities to ensuring everyone, everywhere has access to clean water and sanitation. These are big issues of our time; our young people want to deal with them head on.

The campaign is initially intended to run for four years, but we expect to see positive change and a noticeable impact from day one. Our aim is to build real and lasting relationships in communities that will enable young people to continue taking social action long into the future.

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Discover more... Dementia

Nearly one third of young people know someone with dementia. As the population ages and the number of people living with dementia increases, more and more young people are likely to be affected through family and friends.

Alzheimer’s Society wants to create a dementia friendly generation, by supporting young people to understand dementia today, and empowering them as they reach adulthood.

Educating young people about dementia can help reduce stigma and increase understanding. Changing attitudes and building knowledge can help to reduce the loneliness and social isolation that many people with dementia experience.

By educating young people about dementia, they can learn about protecting their own health, and the importance of a healthy lifestyle including diet. Lack of exercise and alcohol abuse have been shown to be risk factors for dementia.

Discover more... Disability

Many disabled people experience significant exclusion from the experiences, activities and places that non-disabled people take for granted such as visiting shops or friends, using the local playground, or using public transport.

This is because people are disabled by barriers created by physical inaccessibility, laws and policies that don’t consider the needs of disabled people, and negative attitudes and beliefs about disability.

As a Scout, you can take action to improve the lives of disabled people by helping to remove these barriers. You can challenge your own and other people’s attitudes by learning about and understanding disability.

You can visit local services and facilities to see how easily disabled people can use them, then share your findings so improvements can be made, and you can work with disabled people to campaign for better services and changes to the law.

You can take action to achieve the goal of an inclusive society, where disabled people have the freedom to live their lives the way they choose.

Discover more... Mental wellbeing and resiliance

One in 4 people will experience a mental health problem each year in the UK. 6,000 people will take their own lives. Suicide is now the most common cause of death among people under 35. We can’t afford not to talk about it.

Mental health problems can affect anyone. But too many people still feel unable to say that they’re struggling to cope, and this means they don’t get the support they need.

Discover more... Clean water and sanitation

In the UK we are very fortunate to have clean, safe water available to us whenever we need it. We simply turn the tap on and out it comes. We flush the toilet and water takes our waste away. But have you ever wondered where our water comes from and how we know it is safe to drink, or what happens once the toilet has flushed?

In some of the world’s poorest communities, women and children have to get up at dawn and walk for miles to collect water for their families. There are no taps with safe clean water in their homes or even near their homes to use. They have to go to lakes, ponds, streams and rivers to fetch water. The water they find is usually very dirty and causes illness and disease. In fact, 1,400 children die every day from drinking unsafe water.

There is often nowhere safe or private to go to the toilet. Everyone has to go outdoors or use unhygienic facilities, spreading disease and causing embarrassment. WaterAid wants to change this.

WaterAid wants everyone, everywhere to have access to safe water and sanitation by 2030. You can work with WaterAid to make this happen.